Ninguém Pode Saber

A woman by the name of Keiko moves into an apartment with her son, Akira, smuggling in her other three, younger children so the landlord doesn't know of their existence. Some weeks go by, and the mother meets a man. She goes off with him and doesn't return for many months, leaving twelve-year-old Akira in charge of the household. He struggles to care for his family, barely scraping by with what little money his mother left. Somehow, he manages to do it with no serious ramifications. Keiko eventually returns, but it's not for long, and young Akira is forced once again to take up the mantle and look after his siblings; though this time it will be a much more difficult and lengthy process, with far more devastating results.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'Nobody Knows' is a powerful, poignant drama based on the infamous Sugamo child abandonment case of 1988. The film is quietly affecting, telling the simple story of how Akira is forced to act like an adult to his siblings, trying to keep them safe and sound while being but a child himself: a Sisyphean task if ever there was one. Kore-eda's screenplay is free of unnecessary sentiment or pretention; it is direct and unflinching, exploring many themes, the importance of parenthood being but one.

Kore-eda's story is honest and emotionally charged, with minimal dialogue and layered characterization that is full of vivid believability and depth. The audience cares deeply for Akira and his siblings, as well as understanding- if not liking- Keiko and how she could leave her family for so long. It is masterful, understated screenwriting that will really hit home. Kore-eda's best films explore humanity and connection, how everybody needs somebody sometime (to paraphrase the Dean Martin song). 'Nobody Knows' does too; to great effect.

It is worth mentioning that- in addition to writing and directing- Kore-eda also acts as his own editor, so the tone and pacing is consistent from page to screen. The film moves at its' own pace, which is reserved but steady; ever-forging onwards towards the dramatic conclusion like a soldier in the snow. Also of note is Yutaka Yamazaki's restrained and naturalistic cinematography. His work is subtle and assured, resulting in images captured both with clarity and an artistic sense of space and composition. Yamazaki and Kore-eda have worked together numerous times, with their collaborations usually resulting in striking, visually inventive films that one remembers long after seeing them. 'Nobody Knows' is another notch on their proverbial shared belt.

An old showbusiness adage goes "you should never work with children or animals," which is proven to be complete poppycock when one witnesses the efforts of the remarkable cast in 'Nobody Knows.' Yûya Yagira stars as Akira, delivering a captivating, masterful performance of integrity, profundity and subtle emotional perspicuity. Yagira is a brilliant performer, who can transmit emotions and say much- near incomparable in intensity and eloquence- with his physicality and through his silence. He was only thirteen when the film was shot and Yagira shows more intelligence and depth than most actors four times his age. He is a remarkably intuitive and natural actor who is fascinating to watch; and the power of his performance will have you frequently in tears while watching 'Nobody Knows.'

His siblings are played wonderfully by Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura and Momoko Shimizu, with Shimizu particularly impressing as the youngest child Yuki. Yukiko Ehara- better known as You- plays the mother, Keiko, and is perfect for the character. You doesn't play her as totally selfish, more as a young woman whose life raising children alone isn't what she wanted, and is desperate for things to change. She brings to the character much depth and charm; despite being slightly incorrigible. Rounding out the main cast is Hanae Kan, who plays a school-girl Akira befriends. She makes for a welcome addition to the film, and delivers a strong performance to boot.

Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'Nobody Knows' is a sad, quiet film about abandonment that will move any with heart strings left to tug. Featuring powerful performances from the cast- especially the young Yûya Yagira- and striking cinematography from Yutaka Yamazaki; the film is not easily forgotten. Poignant, profound and powerful, 'Nobody Knows' is unaffected, uncompromising and unforgettable cinema.

"Nobody Knows" is painful to watch. It's a story you won't shake off, depicting the most defenseless of humans -- four young children, the oldest only twelve -- trapped in growing poverty and abandonment. It's a process-narrative of devolution that makes you feel helpless and angry and sad. It's saved from mawkishness by the natural energy of the children playing the roles of the four kids. And if it survives, its not because of its treatment of a social issue so much as for its evocation of the precise details of childhood.

There are two main subjects here. One is criminal neglect: the story is loosely based on events that happened in Tokyo in 1988. The other is the private, often secret, lives of children. Koreeda began as a documentary filmmaker and this seems to have given him exceptional skill in working with people and capturing their natural reactions. The winning, tragic children in "Nobody Knows," four half-siblings with different fathers and the same childish, selfish mother, never seem to be acting and often no doubt aren't. Nonetheless the subtlety of expression in the delicate, mobile, beautiful face of the older boy, young Yûya Yagira, was such that it won him the Best Actor award at Cannes last year.

Also important is Koreeda's gift for detail, his meditative examinations of fingernails, feet, a toy piano, video games, pieces of paper, objects strewn around a room, the hundreds of little soft drink bottles that are everywhere in Japan, plants, dirt, all the small things children see because they're closer to the ground. And the things they accept because they're defenseless and innocent, but also incredibly adaptable.

Akira, who's only ten and whose voice changed during year spent making the movie, is in charge. As their mother's absences become lengthier and the children finally seem to be abandoned for good, money runs out. Akira is captain of a sinking ship, a somber duty, but he and his little sisters and brother keep finding time to laugh and play.

Koreeda's a passionately serious filmmaker: the two better known of his earlier fiction films deal with death and loss and here he considers as a given the worst of human carelessness and indifference both by society and the individual. "Maborosi" (1995) was a homage to Ozu but without Ozu's sense of social connectedness; it begins with an isolated couple in the city and chronicles a young widow's second marriage in the country through a slow pastiche of observed daily scenes where event and even dialogue are minimal concerns. The content of "Maborosi" is too thin, but the images and color are exquisite and the sequences of natural, unrehearsed-looking scenes achieve an impressively rich, beautiful, zen-like calm. "After Life" (1998) uses actual recollections of older people talking to the camera to build up a fantasy about dead souls held temporarily in a bureaucratic pre-Heaven limbo being asked to choose a single favorite memory to take with them into eternity: the effect is perplexing, thought-provoking, charming, and with great economy of means, cinematic.

"Nobody Knows" isn't as brilliant or resolved as "After Life" or as exquisitely visual as "Maborosi," but for all its rambling excessive length it delivers a quantity of undigested patient misery and joy that will evoke such noble antecedents from the classic world of cinematic humanism as Clément's "Forbidden Games," De Sica's "Bicycle Thief," and the homeless father and son living on garbage in Kurosawa's Do-des-ka-den.

What's new here though is a sense of the encompassing otherness of big modern cities and the stoicism and resiliency of childhood (and perhaps also of the Japanese personality). Keiko, the childish, weak, spoiled mother (played effectively -- we instantly hate her -- by You, who's some sort of pop star in Japan), sneaks three of her four children into the new apartment and tells them they can't go out, can't show themselves even on the balcony. (In the real event, this was largely because they were illegitimate and had no papers, but here the explanation is that their noise may get them evicted.) Only Akira can leave, and she won't let him or the others go to school. They're prisoners of their urban anonymity and of an impersonal contemporary society.

As in Andrew Berkin's "Cement Garden," the children also pretend everything's okay to escape the cruelty of the social welfare system. We watch agonizingly -- and many writers say the movie's somewhat too long; it does feel thus especially during the first hour -- but this time Koreeda's world is more direct and specific than before and there's plenty of talk. The children chatter among themselves. Eventually they go out and mix a bit by day with other children. Akira even talks to himself; he has to, because there's no adult coaching him so he must impersonate an elder adviser.

Whatever its roughness and excess, "Nobody Knows" is intense and powerful film-making. Koreeda has put his whole heart and soul into this movie and with it achieves an experience you can't shrug off. Nor will you forget the kids, especially the beautiful boy, Yûya Yagira, who may be growing inch by inch into a star even as we speak.

"Children can not choose their parents" This was what came into my mind after I saw this movie.

This movie is based on actual incident happened in 1988. It was much more miserable than the movie. A woman was living with a man. She thought he had filed the marriage notification. When their son was born, the man said he had filed the birth notification. One day he left her to live with another woman. When the boy reached the primary school age, she knew neither the marriage notification nor the birth notification were filed. Facing this situation, she decided to hide her children from the society. (According to another source, the mother told the police that she thought the birth notification of a bastard child would not be accepted.)

She had met several men and had 5 children, two boys and three girls, who were not registered and hidden from other people. When the second boy died of sick, she hid the corps in the closet. While she works in a department store, the eldest son took care of three sisters. When the eldest son was 14, she went out to live with her new man, who was 16 years older than her. She gave the eldest son her address. When the children were protected by the police half a year later, a girl was dead, and the two were debilitated, as they were confined in a room and poorly fed. The girls were 3 and 2 y/o and still used diapers, but they were changed only once every day. It is reported that the eldest boy blamed himself for not being able to take good care of his sisters, instead of blaming his mother...

Compared to the real story, the movie is less miserable. In the movie, even the little boy and girl look normal and pretty, but in the real story they were very poorly developed. But it was still more than enough to surprise me. What a mother! In a conversation with the eldest boy, she says "May I not become happy?" She acts on this thought, without thinking of the same right about her children. Her childish lisping talk describes her immaturity. And of course, men were more guilty. Sadly, children can not choose their parents.

Every child acted amazingly well, very natural. Particularly, the eyes of the eldest boy, Akira, are very impressive. The eyes tell many things from their miserable life.

A mom that should not be a mom.

A kid that wanted to be a kid and is never allowed to be it.

Fantastic acting overall.

A punch in the stomach.

When we are talking about family dramas, Koreeda does it like no other.

This film was very well received at the latest Telluride Film Festival where I saw it. Based on a true incident it is the story of 4 children,each a child by a different father, abandoned by their mother, and trying to survive in modern Japan on their own. The film is paced wonderfully slow, allowing the viewer to focus on small details that overlay other details. It does not drag at all and has moments of humor mixed with pathos.

The oldest, a son of about 13 or 14, incredibly acted, becomes the parent. He is in transition from becoming the responsible one of the family and a typical kid, but one with real values.

There are moments where a box of tissues are in order. The film ends in a moment of hope mixed with a real desire to know what ultimately happened to them all.